Jorel Blu - Founder/Creator
From the very first song I ever wrote, I’ve always been open about my mental health. Music was my only outlet for a long time. Growing up, I didn’t have the resources we have today—or at least I didn’t know where to find them. Being vulnerable wasn’t easy; every time I tried to speak on what I felt, I’d get told to “toughen up” or “be a man.” As you can imagine, those remarks didn’t help.
When I finally learned more about what I was experiencing, something in me shifted. I found a genuine passion for helping others who felt the same way I did. I made a promise to myself that if I was ever given the opportunity, I’d use my platform to bring awareness to mental health. Eventually that promise evolved into, “I’ll create my own opportunity.”
Thankfully, we now live in a time where mental health is widely respected, and so many incredible people are doing their part to shed light on it. Still, there’s a lot of work to be done. That’s why 50% of all profits from Feeling Blu will go directly to mental health organizations.
The question I get a lot is, “What is Feeling Blu?”
But I think the better question is, “Who is Blu?”
Blu is all of us.
Inside and out.
You define it however it makes sense to you.
From the beat-up shoes to the homemade paper-bag mask, Blu represents the parts of ourselves we’re still learning to understand. The questions we ask in private:
How did you overcome your biggest fears?
How do you push through your darkest days?
What’s your story?
Feeling Blu is a reminder that we’re all in this together. Our best days are still ahead of us. And when you’re “Feeling Blu,” it doesn’t mean you have to slow down, stop, or stay down—it just means you might need a moment, or a community, to help you keep moving forward.
Recently, I went through something traumatic of my own. It felt like all the progress I made slipped away. My tone changed. Negativity got the best of me. But speaking up and being vulnerable brought so many supportive people into my corner. It reminded me that I’m never really alone.
There are countless people fighting the same fight every single day—and showing up for each other goes a long way.
I’m still learning.
We all are.
And together, we’re going to make a difference.
-Jorel Blu
Raco Ruiz - Artwork
Raco Ruiz is a 25-year-old video director/visual artist from Manila. When it comes to his visual art, Raco usually creates work that is influenced by surrealism, graffiti art, pop art, and low brow cartoon art. He usually creates art using bright neon pastel colors with a few traditional East Asian art accents such as drawings of clouds or smoke; and more often than not, featuring a pop culture icon or two.
Over the years, Jorel Blu has asked me to bring a lot of his mad genius ideas to life, but when he sent me the brief for his concept for “Feeling Blu”, I thought to myself that this idea was his greatest one yet. It was also a no brainer that it meant the world to him because of the amount of detail he put into the character description, so naturally I wanted to create the best possible Blu character design I could come up with in order to make Blu truly come to life and stand up for all the great ideas and beliefs Jorel wanted the character to represent in the first place. -Raco Ruiz